


Champ

by gregknowshisshit



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Best Friends, Coming Out, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Revelations, Supportive Danny "Danno" Williams, Trans Male Character, trans!Steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 10:28:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11781264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gregknowshisshit/pseuds/gregknowshisshit
Summary: When Steve told Danny that the toolbox from his dad's garage had been full of items for the case, he was lying. Danny brings it up one night when they're alone in the office, and Steve has no choice but to tell him the very personal truth about what his dad left behind.





	Champ

**Author's Note:**

> Fair warning, I think both Danny and Steve are a little out of character here, but I couldn't help writing the sweetness! Hope that everyone enjoys it :)

"Hey, Steve?" Danny started quietly as he and the Lieutenant Commander sat in Steve's office drinking beer and laughing as they chatted about some of their most ridiculous cases together.

"Yeah Danno?"

"What was really in that toolbox from your dad?" 

"What are you talking about? We went through everything in there, you know it was the stuff for the case on the governor."

"No. See I never told you, figured it wasn't worth the hassle at the time, but I already found all that stuff before you even got to the island. I assumed it was bits of old junk so I left it where it was, but it was in a tin box in one of the drawers of his desk. Not in that toolbox." Danny explained slowly, noting how Steve's face paled a little with the realisation that Danny had known about his lies the whole time.

"I'm not mad or anything. Just curious as to what was in there that you didn't want me to see so much. I mean, taking on a whole task force just to avoid some haole detective seeing what was inside that box seems a little intense to me." The blonde man continued, smiling jokingly at Steve who was now looking at him nervously.

"You've gotta promise not to tell anyone else, alright? None of the 5-0, not Grace, not Kamekona. Nobody. It's the most private thing about me, and I'd prefer it to stay that way."

"Yeah, of course buddy. Listen, I didn't mean to pressure you, you don't have to tell me if it's something too personal." Danny replied sincerely, his eyebrows now furrowed together in a slight frown.

"It's okay. You're my partner, you deserve to know." Steve smiled back, although he still looked slightly anxious, his hands twisting together as he did anything to distract himself.

"I wasn't born like this. I was- I was all wrong. I was born Mary Ann McGarrett. The pictures you saw in my house, I lied, I don't have a sister, they're all of me." 

"You're-"

"Transgender. Yes. I had my mastectomy a long time ago now, and my name and gender are legally changed everywhere. I did it all so quietly nobody even seemed to notice. They just assumed I'd been born after my dad sent 'Mary' away, and then I'd come back now to honour my father. Hell, even Chin hasn't realised and he knew me growing up." Steve explained slowly, constantly checking Danny's face to see that the man was as calm as he had been when this conversation first started.

"Okay. Well first, thanks for trusting me with this. I've always got your back, buddy, this doesn't change that one bit, alright? As much as it pains me to say it, you're my best friend, man." The blonde man smiled gently at him, causing Steve to chuckle lightly while he took another swig of beer, his racing heart now slowing once again.

"But I still don't get it, what was with that box?"

"My dad, he was great but he just- he never got it. I was always just his little girl, you know? It made me so mad, never being able to be myself without him dragging me back, so I just upped and left when I was 17, barely spoke to him after that. But then on the day of his murder, he said something on the phone."

"Champ. He called you champ, you said he'd never done that before." Danny cut in quickly, gaining a nod from Steve.

"Exactly. Years I'd been trying to get him to even acknowledge that he had a son, and then suddenly just as he's about to die, he finally calls me champ and that's the end of it? Something was off there, so I came back here, and what did I find? A toolbox with the word champ on the side. Didn't have time to look at it before you turned up, of course, but I could just tell that it was something meant for me."

"Okay, so, what was it?"

"It was full of little tokens, stuff from my life that he'd kept as I was growing up. My first tooth, the ball from my first game of baseball, first pair of shoes, all of that stuff. Except he'd had them all put in cases, and they all said Steve. 'Steve's first tooth', 'Steve's first win', even the pictures he had, he'd written my name on. Not 'Mary Ann'. Me." Steve explained, Danny noticing as the man's eyes glazed over with tears as he went over the story.

"He wanted to show he'd accepted you."

"Kind of, but it was more than that, you know? It was like permission. Like he was allowing me to finally open up to people by being able to show them bits of my childhood. I've never been able to do that before, I'm like this ghost that just turned up one day, but now it's not like that. I have a past, I've lived a life and it's all there on record." 

"Maybe he'd changed his mind. Decided he wanted his son back in his life and was getting ready to show you that."

"I don't think so. I think he knew something big was coming that he might not get out of, and this box is his way of passing on the baton, letting me be the man of the family once he was gone. He even left me his tools in the bottom. He'd had them all cleaned and fixed up, left a note that just said, 'I'm sorry I haven't shared these with you earlier. I love you'." Steve continued, finally choking a little as a couple of tears escaped and tumbled down his cheeks, which he hurriedly wiped away.

"He loved you so much, buddy. Even if it didn't seem like it sometimes. And he'd be so, so proud of everything you've done here. It's alright to be upset about it. I'm not gonna judge you." Danny spoke softly, apparently breaking down Steve's final wall of defence as he let out choked sob, followed by another, until he was sobbing into his hands, his palms firmly pressed against his eyes as he tried to stop the onslaught of tears. 

Danny stood from his chair and went to the other side of the desk, wrapping his arms around Steve slowly in a hug, being rewarded as the other man pulled him in tightly, as if holding on for dear life.

"It's okay, you're alright, Steve." He soothed quietly, rubbing a hand up and down his friends back until Steve finally seemed to calm down, taking a deep shaky breath before pulling away from Danny and wiping his eyes.

"Hey, Danny?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. For everything. I, uh, I really appreciate knowing you're here. I hope you know, I'm always around for you too. You're my best friend." Steve gave a small, sincere smile, and looking up to find a grinning Danny in response.

"I know that, man. I appreciate having you here as well. Now come on, we've got two crates of beer that we're drinking not nearly fast enough." The blonde man laughed, cracking open another beer for them both and handing one to Steve, chinking the tops together before taking a swig.

"To the action-packed future of Steve McGarrett." Danny raised his bottle, Steve doing the same, his eyes glistening with tears once again as they toasted his fresh start, and their future together.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos make me a very happy little bunny! ;)


End file.
